John Isaacs
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John Isaacs (b. 1915) is an early African-American professional basketball player, who led his Boys' Textile High School in Chelsea (now the Humanities Preparatory Academy) basketball team to the New York City High School Basketball championship title in 1935, receiving All-City honors in the process.
Fresh out of high school, the 6’-1”, 190 lb. guard signed a pro basketball contract with the New York Renaissance (“Rens”) in 1936, earning the nickname “Boy Wonder.” Before signing with Rens team owner Bob Douglas, Isaacs recalls that he first had to get permission from his mother.
The pay was not much, especially in light of rookie NBA contracts today. Isaacs, who played with the Rens from 1936 to 1940, earned $150 a month plus $3 a day meal money after signing out of high school.
Isaacs won Chicago World Professional Basketball Tournament championships with the Rens (1939) and with the Washington Bears (1943), one of only a handful of players to win multiple Chicago World Pro Tournament titles, including Hall of Fame members Pop Gates and Bobby McDermott, as well as Willie Smith, Puggy Bell and Jerry Bush.
On the court, Isaacs was a fierce competitor and floor leader, a crisp passer and playmaker, a hardnosed defender and a tenacious rebounder. In addition to bringing a crushing brand of physical toughness, Isaacs also introduced the pick and roll to the Rens, a play he learned in high school. At a time when assists, turnovers, steals and rebounds did not appear in newspaper box scores and score cards as they do today, a player was measured by team results and by the quality of his teammates.
Historians agree that in the case of the New York Rens, every player on the court was expected to do everything, so one had to be at the level of his teammates.
“To this day, I have never seen a team play better team basketball,” said the legendary coach and Hall of Fame member John Wooden-–who faced the barnstorming Rens often during the mid-1930s while a player with the Indianapolis Kautskys and other all-white pro basketball teams in Indiana--in a USA Today interview in 2000. “They had great athletes, but they weren’t as impressive [individually] as their team play. The way they handled and passed the ball was just amazing to me then and I believe it would be today.”
Isaacs recalls that Wooden could “flat out play.” Rather than “flash and dash,” says Isaacs, Wooden preferred to “take it to the rack.”
So, while there are few living players and hard stats from the Black Fives Era that can testify directly regarding Isaacs' performance (Isaacs himself is the only surviving member of the ground-breaking 1938-1939 World’s Champion Rens team), the results speak for themselves. No less than seven of his Rens and Bears teammates are already enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame: Gates (1989) and Tarzan Cooper (1977) individually, and Clarence “Fats” Jenkins, Johnny Holt, Eyre Saitch, Willie Smith and Bill Yancey as members of the 1932-1933 Rens team that was enshrined as a unit (1963). Two others are enshrined in the New York City and Philadelphia Basketball Halls of Fame, respectively: Puggy Bell and Zack Clayton. William “Dolly” King, a teammate on the Bears, is enshrined in the Long Island University Sports Hall of Fame.
As testimony enough, Isaacs was a starter on the teams that featured these remarkable players.
Isaacs and Pop Gates are credited for introducing the motion offense to basketball.
He joined the Dayton Rens in 1948, becoming a member of the first all-black team to play in the National Basketball League.
In addition to the Rens and Bears, Isaacs played pro basketball with numerous teams including the Hazleton Mountaineers (Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League) and the Utica Olympics (New York State Professional League), as well as with Brooklyn and Saratoga (American Basketball League) into the early 1950s.
After retiring, he coached basketball and later became a youth mentor and recreation counselor at the Madison Square Boys and Girls Club in the Bronx, a job he has held for over 40 years and still goes to every day. Isaacs, active at 90 years old and co-hosts a weekly sports talk show, "What's Going On," that airs on WHCR-FM 90.3, the City College of New York community radio station, otherwise known as "The Voice of Harlem." He also appears frequently at basketball camps, amateur league games, fundraising events and panel discussions.
Isaacs was nominated by the Veterans Screening Committee for induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame with the 2006 class of inductees, but did not receive enough votes to qualify. Isaacs has been honored as a member of the NYC Basketball Hall of Fame and Harlem Professionals Hall of Fame, among others.
